Abstract
The lifetime of soft robots is limited by their susceptibility to damage. Recent breakthroughs in healable soft robots have overcome this issue by manufacturing systems from self-healing polymers. However, to operate and recover autonomously, compatible sensors need to be embedded. We show that innovative healable soft sensors to measure strain, force, and damage, based on a self-healing conductive elastomeric composite, were developed and integrated with near-perfect interfacial strength in a healable soft gripper. The paper details the complete development of the gripper, including the selection of the conductive composite based on carbon black and nanoclay, sensor and actuator characterization, and its manufacturing. The gripper with embedded sensors recovers its actuation, sensor function, and damage detection after being severely damaged, and this multiple times.
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